Shortwave Transmissions From Earth
by Nicole Silverwolf
Summary: TF:Animated Short drabbles done for the weekly contest at tfanimated's lj community.
1. Only Who Is Left

Disclaimer: Not mine. The end.

Overall author's notes. These are 100-600 word drabbles done for the TF:animated comm's weekly contest over on LJ. It should be obvious that there will often be spoilers, as each theme is related to the previous week's episode. Enjoy.

Comments are always welcome. Thanks for reading!

_**Shortwave Transmissions from Earth**_

_**By, Nicole Silverwolf**_

**Log 1: Only Who Is Left**

**Prompt: Heroes**

**Episodes 1-3 (Transform and Roll Out)**

**Notes: Bumblebee's POV**

Until now I was pretty sure that being a hero was the best thing ever. Way better than fixing space bridges that was for sure, full of adventure and praise and all those things you hear about when you're just a sparkling on the holovids. Being a hero meant you saved the day.

Except...

Optimus Prime.

He's gone.

Dead! As in never coming back ever, EVER again!

Hero's aren't supposed to have their sparks extinguished.

And Prime's a hero so he's not supposed to die.

Except his spark's been extinguished.

And all I can think about is how Ratchet never talks about the great war. Even though we bug, tease and beg him to tell us all about it. We all just thought he was a grumpy old guy. Maybe all adults got that way when they got past a certain age.

Now I think I understand why he got so upset.

You never hear on those vids or in those stories how being the hero means you might die.

_'You can fix this Ratchet, right? We've got the Allspark and that'll make Prime better right? Prime's not really gone...right?'_

I look up at him and when he sees all these questions that I know he can't answer I want to apologize. Because he must have known so many Autobots who joined the well of Allsparks, ones who he probably tried to save and couldn't. Sparks that burned out way before their time.

Even though the Allspark's here, I can tell by his optics that it won't make a difference.

How does he do it after all this time?

Because I'd just about give up everything if we could be back doing something safe like repairing space bridges right now. Then at least Prime would be alive.

And I wonder if Ratchet ever feels that way, thinks about how if we weren't acting like heroes that we'd be safe.


	2. Proud

**Log 2: Proud**

**Prompt: Heroes**

**Episodes 1-3 (Transform and Roll Out)**

**Notes: Bumblebee's POV**

"No, he can't be gone. He can't!"

Sari's race is so much smaller than ours and since she's still just a youngling among them it's even more pronounced. But I don't think I really ever thought about how big that difference was until she was standing next to Prime.

But then she gets all still, back straight and hands in determined fists. Climbs up onto our leader's chest and throws down that key even though I get the impression she's not sure what it will do.

We can all here it transform as Prime's spark casing is exposed. It's terrifying to look at because I selfishly wonder if that's what mine might look like if my Spark was gone.

All of us don't want him to be gone. Even though the Allspark might be a miracle I have to warn her that it probably won't work. If she tried and it didn't work I knew it would devastate her.

I mean bringing any spark back from the well was just a myth. Just like bringing people back from the dead was a myth in human folklores.

Right?

"Prime didn't give up. And neither will I!"

I don't know how she did it and I know Ratchet can't explain what happened, but she brought him back. Maybe the Allspark decided to act on its own but I don't think that was completely it. I think a lot of it had to do with how brave she was to try something like that, even though she knew she could fail.

And while all of the Earth news channels proclaimed us heroes, praised us for saving the city from Starscream I don't feel like a hero.

Besides.

Sari proved to me she was the real hero anyways. If I was in her shoes, I don't think I could have been half as brave as she was.

I'm proud to call her my best friend.


	3. Cultivating a Tree Spark

**Log 3: Cultivating a Tree Spark**

**Prompt: Nature**

**Episode: Home is Where the Spark Is**

**Notes: Bumblebee, Sari and a briefly mentioned Prowl.**

"Sari?"

"Yeah Bumblebee?"

"Can you help me with this?"

The yellow bot was gesturing at a box about the size of a garbage can but half its height that was filled with an uneven mass of recently shoveled earth.

"Suuuuure," she agreed carefully, searching for something that might require the Allspark key.

When she found no keyhole or anything out of the ordinary, she asked an almost guilty question. "What is it?"

"Nature," declared the Autobot as if it were quite obvious.

After a long perusal of the box and its contents the red head carefully corrected him.

"It's dirt."

"No, I put a tree spark in it a day ago but...I think I messed it up," Bumblebee admitted.

Sari's face scrunched in confusion. "What's a tree spark?" she muttered under her breath trying to puzzle out what her friend might mean, hands on her hips. The autobots were prone to using creative (and consequently confusing) phrases for describing Earth oddities they had never come across before.

Since a spark was kind of like a heartbeat maybe...

Her eyes lit with insight. "OH!! You mean you planted a seed?"

"Seed? Is that what these are called?" the Autobot asked.

She inspected his outstretched palm and confirmed he'd buried seeds under the soil and not bolts and wing nuts from a scrap heap. After all, maybe that was where Autobots came from and Bumblebee had tried the same thing to get a tree.

"It looks like you did fine Bumblebee. What's wrong?" He'd clearly watered and placed the plant-to-be in appropriate sunlight.

"Where's the tree?"

"What tree?"

"The one that supposed to come out of that seed thing. It's supposed to get as big as the one in Prowl's room right?"

"But you only planted it yesterday!" she exclaimed smiling.

"And?"

"The tree in Prowl's room probably took like fifty _years _to get that big," Sari gestured as wide as she could with her arms to illustrate the span of time.

"Well that's not a long time...is it?" the yellow bot asked.

"It is for humans. I'd be as old as my dad by the time the tree got that big."

"Oh," he conceded quietly.

She peered up at him wondering at his defeated tone. "Why are you trying to grow a tree?"

"It's an apology."

He didn't need to elaborate for whom or why. The two regarded the box and its unassuming dirt, puzzling out what to do about this new dilemma.

"Maybe you should be patient for a couple days and see what happens? This tree might be like a super tree and grow really fast," Sari declared.

"Well...I guess..."

"I'll help," she assured putting an unassuming hand on his leg and giving a bright thumbs up.

Two months later, Prowl found a box where there had not been one yesterday. A scraggly stalk of a plant, the bare sapling green beginnings of an oak tree rose just about two feet from the surface of the dirt.

So the attached note's contents were not much of a shock considering the two authors.

Despite the fact that Bumblebee had learned how to be still occasionally, Prowl figured his base programming just insisted otherwise. Sari's scrawling Earth English and Bumblebee's designation were attached to the bottom.

_'Nature takes too long. We got tired of waiting for it to get as big as your tree. So you can have it now, even though we wanted to wait for it to get bigger.'_


	4. Compromise

**Log 4: Compromise**

**Prompt: Be True to Yourself**

**Episode: Blast from the Past**

**Notes: Prowl, Ratchet and Bumblebee started it...**

There was a bang and the wall went sailing across the entirety of the complex for the fourth time in as many days.

Bumblebee and Prowl were at it again.

Ratchet clenched the tools in his hands (delicate ones that shouldn't be unduly stressed the medic reminded himself) and pressed his face into a very straight line. He was the portrait of patience worn entirely too thin.

Fortunately the charred metal landed in a most opportune place...directly in front of Optimus Prime.

Whose patience had_also_ run out.

"Bumblebee! Front and center, now!" his voice echoed across the cavernous space. Every bit the leader he was slowly shaping up to be.

Said yellow bot slunk from where he'd skidded only a few steps ahead of Prowl's chase. The medic caught a distinctive snatch of "he started it" before the Autobot leader fixed Bumblebee with a look and glared the youngster out into the evening air.

"Get over here." Ratchet ordered in the ensuing silence and the medic made sure it wasn't the tone that this team was accustomed to hearing from him. It was short and a little too seriously vicious to be ignored (as Prowl was wont to do when someone's orders didn't suit his plans).

A long pause.

And then.

"This was entirely his fault Ratchet..."

Bright optics pinned Prowl before he could even hope to begin an explanation.

"It takes two bots to fight Prowl. It was both your faults. I'd expect you to at least be old enough to admit that."

"You can't possibly expect us to get along Ratchet. And I will not change my behavior or my beliefs simply because he is too much of an inconsiderate sparkling to respect my space, privacy and life!"

This was not a new argument.

Friction between them had been longstanding--even on the Ark. And despite having made significant strides to work together on the battlefield; on the homefront Bumblebee and Prowl were still oil to water. To compromise on any issue (especially regarding tightly held beliefs) was seen as compromising Prowl's own integrity. Which was unacceptable to the black and gold bot. And only seemed to egg Bumblebee on.

Maybe a change of tactics was in order Ratchet decided.

"Now look Prowl. No one on this team is telling you to change who you are and you slagging know it. Prime expects you two to get along civilly at the bare minimum whether you like it or not. Compromising about this isn't any different than your tree."

"How so?"

"That tree's been around for longer than a lot of things on this planet. It's strong and hasn't moved from that spot since it was planted. But you ever watched it in those things the humans call thunderstorms?"

"Yes," though clearly Prowl wasn't sure where this parable was going.

"The winds can gust over sixty miles an hour. It can't snap the trunk, that's too thick. But it can easily snap the branches to pieces. So trees have developed ways to bend with the wind when necessary. The fact that it bends doesn't threaten the rest of the tree's strength OR its identity."

He passed Prowl on the way towards recharge. Just shy of the doorway before he'd have to shout to be heard he stopped.

"I know you and Bumblebee don't see optic to optic on just about anything. I also know that it won't offline you to try to look at things from his perspective and occasionally compromise. That isn't a defeat."

"...You _may_ have a point," Prowl conceded carefully.

"Finally," Ratchet muttered.


	5. Humble Through it All

**Log 5: Humble Through it All**

**Prompt: Memory**

**Episode: The Thrill of the Hunt**

**Notes: When things go unexpectedly wrong with animals at work (we had three HIGH risk surgeries today that got a bit hairy during pre and post op) God (or your higher power of choice) is humbling you a bit Dr. Davis likes to say. I had been struggling with how exactly I wanted to attack the theme until I heard that.**

The Ark was quiet and dim except for the room they hid the Allspark.

He sat with a bottle in hand, facing the container and taking slow savoring sips of a bright liquid. No one knew that he'd collected a small ration of High Grade Energon and Ratchet intended to keep it that way. While talking to Prime had been a good idea (he couldn't deny that reality) there was something about this that was important too. Probably a bit more unhealthy--he'd seen other bots come to ruin doing things like this--it was still a comfort.

It was late and he was more sorely in need of recharge than he was willing to let on. But there was that buzz that only came from saving a spark and repairing an injury that wouldn't leave him be.

A hand absently grazed over the recently repaired scar where the EMP generator had been reattached. He still wasn't convinced that this wasn't a betrayal of her sacrifice. But he never wanted to see it used like he had on that ship.

Somehow, deep down he knew she'd understand that too.

Leaving the newly reacquired equipment alone he took another swig of energon, relishing in how good it tasted.

Ratchet knew he was a good medic. He'd saved countless lives. Eased the suffering of those he couldn't do anything for. So the fact that he had failed that one mission should not have eaten him as much as it still did.

He couldn't shake the fact that in this one case, it hadn't been anyone's fault but his own. It hadn't been a clot in a fuel line he hadn't seen coming that burst weeks after a surgery, or an inherent instability in a spark that had gone to the pits when he'd taken someone offline for repair.

"She was a good bot. Didn't deserve what happened to her that's for sure. Why didn't you do something so I could save her?"

Of course it was easy to blame something he'd considered a myth up until about fifty years ago. Far easier than analyzing all the things he'd done wrong that day, choices he could have made that might have saved her memories

"I don't get you," he declared to the inanimate energy signature. The Allspark didn't acknowledge his words or even his presence of course. It was hard to tell if he'd had too much to drink though Ratchet was sure his team would think he was loose a few bolts.

He had saved every scrap of information he could find or remember about Arcee and he used the silence to replay those scant moments. They were too small and too few to encompass the Autobot she must have been, but they were better than nothing.

"Guess I'm not meant to understand huh?" he asked the Allspark quietly, with a reverence that seemed almost out of place on the medi-bot.

No response again, though Ratchet clearly had never expected one in the first place.

It was getting late, and he wanted to check on Prime again. He'd left a hovering and somewhat overly concerned Bumblebee and Bulkhead to watch over their leader, but it was time to get back to his responsibilities. Stowing the remaining Energon and standing very squarely on his feet he frowned at the Allspark.

"Much obliged for keeping me humble," he spoke solemnly to the power source.


	6. Parasite

**Log 6: Parasite**

**Prompt: Aging**

**Episode: Nanosec**

**Notes: Megatron (and my first real attempt at writing in a villain POV)**

The arm barely responds to my commands and even now, only minutes after its installation it is failing. Sparks fly from the flimsy steel casing, inferior parts engineered by inferior beings.

Pathetic.

The human—Sumdac is his designation—apologizes again; at least he is able to recognize what is causing the problem.

He is good for little else.

Still.

Without a body I am extremely limited in the actions I can take.

He is necessary.

For now.

However, there is a problem I am becoming increasingly aware of.

Organic beings on this planet age significantly faster than I (and I can only assume those meddling Autobots) do. Their lifespan is measured in something they refer to as decades. There is no decent Cybertronian equivalent for such an infinitesimal period of time. Breem comes close but is still not small enough.

This means more importantly that there is a very finite period of time in which I will be able to acquire the tools and teach this fool the skills to construct a new body.

Because though Sumdac is utterly incompetent, the world recognizes him as the foremost robotics engineer in the field. His research is plastered all over their primitive

Internet. Even though I am the basis for all of his inventive work, it requires some...skill I will admit...to reverse engineer something of use from it.

All the more imperative that I divulge some more information so he can develop the means to create my true form again.

"Tell me Sumdac, how much do you know about nanites?"

He launches into a primitive explanation, one that is beneath my need to pay attention.

Pitifully devolved species.


End file.
